How Can I Make New Stuff from Old Stuff is middle school chemistry unit developed by the Investigating Our World Through Science and Technology (IQWST) research group made up of researchers at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. From the IQWST website: Driving Question: How Can I Make New Stuff From Old Stuff? This is a 6 to 8-week project-based unit designed for 7th grade students. In order to contextualize chemistry concepts and scientific inquiry in students’ real-world experiences, the unit focuses on an everyday material in their lives: Soap. Students create a new substance (soap) from “old” substances (lard and sodium hydroxide) as they study several important science concepts.
There are three learning sets in the instructional sequence.
Learning Set 1 focuses on substances and properties. Students learn that a substance is made of only one material throughout, and that properties are characteristics of substances that scientists use to describe substances, to help identify substances, and to distinguish substances from one another. In order to further develop their understanding of properties, students investigate the solubility, melting point, and density of soap and fat.
Learning Set 2 introduces chemical reactions. Students learn that a chemical reaction is a process in which old substances interact to form new substances. Students revisit the features of the particulate model of matter (learned in 6th grade chemistry) to understand that a chemical reaction is a process in which two or more substances interact, and their atoms combine in new ways to form new substances with properties different from those of the old substances. The new substances are made of the same atoms as the old ones, but those atoms are arranged in new ways. Students also examine both phase changes and mixtures to determine whether new substances are created during these processes (two common misconceptions).
Learning Set 3 focuses on the conservation of mass. Students use models to learn that no matter how substances interact with one another, because the number and type of atoms stays the same (regardless of how they are rearranged) the total mass of the system stays the same.
How Do We Make New Stuff from Old Stuff
Introduction
How Can I Make New Stuff from Old Stuff is middle school chemistry unit developed by the Investigating Our World Through Science and Technology (IQWST) research group made up of researchers at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. From the IQWST website:
Driving Question: How Can I Make New Stuff From Old Stuff?
This is a 6 to 8-week project-based unit designed for 7th grade students. In order to contextualize chemistry concepts and scientific inquiry in students’ real-world experiences, the unit focuses on an everyday material in their lives: Soap. Students create a new substance (soap) from “old” substances (lard and sodium hydroxide) as they study several important science concepts.
There are three learning sets in the instructional sequence.
Curriculum Resources